AUSTIN, Texas -- Responding to the broad
range of
legal problems resulting from Hurricane Ike, Texas legal aid
organizations and the Houston Bar Association have developed
an
online resource to assist Texans affected by the disaster in
obtaining free legal information. The new service, called
LiveHelp,
is available now and enables Hurricane Ike victims to
conduct a live
online chat with attorneys recruited by the Houston
Volunteer
Lawyers Program. Attorneys will answer questions and also
refer
those seeking help to legal resources specific to FEMA
appeals and
other disaster-related issues.

LiveHelp is free and can be reached through the Web site
www.TexasLawHelp.org. Attorneys are available weekdays from
1-5 pm.
When help is not available, online users may leave a
message. The
TexasLawHelp Web site also contains information on legal
resources
for disaster victims.

Houston attorney Andrew Strong spearheaded the LiveHelp
project for
the State Bar of Texas' Legal Services to the Poor in Civil
Matters
Committee. "We are incredibly excited about this new
service, which
provides attorneys located anywhere in the nation the
opportunity to
help people without the challenges of travel to remote
locations,"
Strong said. "Through an online chat session, volunteer
attorneys
can complement and expand on available on- the-ground legal
services."

The Houston Bar Association, working with Lone Star Legal
Aid and
Texas Legal Services Center, have provided extensive
training to
over 200 attorneys who will be offering pro bono legal aid
to
Hurricane Ike victims. Attorneys interested in signing up to
volunteer for LiveHelp can do so through the State Bar of
Texas Web
site at http://www.texasbar.com/ikevolunteers.

Lone Star Legal Aid and Texas Legal Services Center have
already
been swamped with calls from Hurricane Ike victims who have
been
improperly denied assistance from FEMA or Texas state
agencies.
Other issues facing Hurricane Ike victims include contractor
fraud,
the wrongful denial of insurance claims, and problems
getting
landlords to complete essential repairs.

Texas is the seventh state to implement LiveHelp on its
statewide
legal services Web site for consumers, and the first state
to
provide LiveHelp assistance using volunteer attorneys.
LiveHelp was
developed by Pro Bono Net, a national nonprofit dedicated to
increasing access to justice through the innovative use of
technology.

Funding for the new technology has been made available
through an
emergency grant from the Texas Access to Justice Foundation.
The
Texas Access to Justice Foundation ( www.teajf.org ),
created by the
Supreme Court of Texas in 1984, is the leading state-based
funding
source for the provision of civil legal aid in Texas. The
organization is committed to the vision that all Texans will
have
equal access to justice, regardless of their income. The
Foundation
administers a variety of funding sources, which are
earmarked to
assist nonprofit organizations in providing legal aid to
approximately 100,000 Texans each year.